Canada’s SecureKey to Build a Blockchain Digital Identity Network with US Grant

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Leading identity and authentication provider SecureKey and a Canadian non-profit coalition have been granted funding from a research center within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to build a digital identity network using blockchain technology.

In a report from Reuters, the grant for up to $800,000 from the Command Control and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analytics (CCICADA) will help SecureKey and the Digital ID and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC), the non-profit coalition, to construct a digital network.

It is hoped that this digital system will permit the public to gain access to online services without the need to remember passwords or even prove their identity, but still maintaining their privacy and security throughout.

In today’s world, every organization acts on its own. Digital identity is bigger than any one organization … it takes a village to make digital identity work.

In today’s technologically advanced world people need something they can trust and rely on that will prove a person’s identity and make identity fraud difficult. SecureKey and DIACC are hoping to achieve this.

By using the blockchain SecureKey have developed a ‘triple blind’ privacy procedure which enables people to connect to online services through a trusted log. This process also ensures that the amount of actual data being transmitted is limited for enhanced security. For example, while a person may log in to their bank with their bank details, the bank won’t be able to see where the data is going while the recipient won’t see which bank is used or any bank account information.

Similarly, SecureKey will also be ‘blind’ to what’s going on.

FinTech Boost in Canada

This news will only help to give Canada’s FinTech sector a further push to continue its upward trend in the market. A report in January found that funding within the sector in Canada reached an all-time high last year in twenty years.

With Canada’s financial technology sector and its bitcoin industry experiencing an upward trend it appears that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are taking advantage by getting SecureKey and DIACC to construct a digital network that could prove beneficial for all concerned.